This study aims to examine the way parents are involved with their children and related factors affecting parents’ involvement in primary education in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). This study uses qualitative analysis based on case studies by conducting semi-structured interviews with 11 Marshallese individuals who have or had elementary children or relatives and are considered highly skilled people (employed in any field) in Majuro, the capital atoll of the RMI. This study finds that the community factors based on their culture, such as mutual assistance and family obligation, strongly affected other factors. Although most of the interviewees valued educational achievement and were actively involved with their children, many Marshallese value education and involvement with children less because of mutual assistance. Obligation of mutual assistance includes things like supporting one another by spending money on extended family, such as on food and expenses. In the RMI, education is a factor in making better relationships within the family lineage, as employment and higher wages has an effect on the form of assistance and repayment.

View full abstract

Historical information on the relationship between the 67^th garrison of the Japanese Imperial Navy and local women on Nauru Island is sparse. The central objective of this article is to show the Nauruan experiences from the perspective of gender. The author will describe the ways in which the women’s identities were undermined and weakened via the deprivation of their traditional culture and a weakening of strong ties among Nauruans. The experiences of the occupation by Nauruans as well as other Asians and Pacific Islanders, such as Chinese and Gilbertese, on the island are also varied. The data on these experiences comes from interviews with several persons from Nauru and Japan in the early 2000s. In addition, official documents provided by the National Archives of Australia, as well as recently discovered sources in Japan, will be examined in the second chapter. The author compares such primary data with official documents, while analyzing different—sometimes conflicting—sources in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the issue. The final section sheds light on the background of a case involving the killing of Nauruan lepers. It touches on state propaganda during the prewar and war periods in Japan and substantiates claims that Japanese behavior towards lepers in Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria was consistent. Treatment, however, was different on Nauru and on Ocean Island, as shown in the experiences of Nauruan women with the massacre of lepers.

View full abstract